Practicum

Wow.  How to start...
I have two kindergarteners who are significantly behind.  My girl has the initial sounds down pat, except for the qu. Short and long vowels?  No problem.  Then we got to the initial blends - none.  She separates the sounds instead of blending them together.  Ending blends? Almost none.  Silent e ? Nope.  Cape is cap.  She did know kite.  The "z" nonsense words?  She was able to sound out  those as long as they were CVC patterns.  I very much feel like I'm stuck in sand, just spinning my wheels.  But we keep going over and over the same stuff.  Mastery, right?  The memory worries me.  I explain, model, we practice together, then she tries on her own and cannot do it.  Sigh!!!

ESOL article

In doing research for the tic-tac-toe sheet, I ran across a facinating article on helping ELL's acquire English.

"First Language Use in Second Language Literacy Development"
Irene C Pompeiit-Szul, Ph.D. NYU
based on a study in the mid-90's - used in elementary (4th and 5th) and middle (6-8) schools - Use of first language to scaffold second acquisition.
http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/

This was a wonderful article, very clearly written with no loose ends as to how they had run the test.  The one thing I had a problem with was that one of the kids was Polish, brought his story from home written in Polish, and luckily the husband of the researcher knew Polish and was able to translate so the experiment could move forward.  Right.  this isn't New York, so I have a sneaking suspicion we would have jsut a bit more trouble. 

But, anyway, please read the article because it does show how to help students move toward proficiency in English.
 In ruminating on the study, I've started to wonder if the techniques could also be applied to students who have reading / writing issues.  I really don't see why they couldn't.....

website - Lexiles VS careers

What We Know About

Adolescent Reading

Dr. Willard R. Daggett, International Center for Leadership in Education

Dr. Ted S. Hasselbring, Vanderbilt University

http://www.leadered.com/pdf/adolescent%20reading%20whitepaper.pdf

This is the article title and link for a report by two researchers from Vanderbilt. In the article is a graph showing average Lexile of 10th graders, average Lexile of textbooks, and on to average Lexiles of entry-level careers.  Very enlightening.  This is the article that points out that the current levels of curriculum are insufficient for the needs of business.  Hopefully the CC will help remedy this.

A non-reader

I would say a non-reader is a person who is unable to read at a level necessary to funtion efficiently in their daily lives.  According to one study I read, the levels of required literacy are increasing as we move forward, putting struggling readers further and further behind the curve.The article was:

"What We Know About Adolescent Reading" - Dr, Williard R Daggett, INternational Center for Leadership in Education; Dr. Ted A. Hasselbring, Vanderbilt University.

Domain VS Content Literacy

In doing some reading, I found a reference to Swafford and Kallus (2002) defining "Content LIteracy" as

Content area literacy is exemplified by individuals who use 1) their background knowledge; 2) print and

nonprint texts; 3) developing technologies; and 4) the tools of reading, writing, speaking, listening,

representing, viewing, and other sign systems to explore, construct, learn, and communicate information

within a variety of social and cultural contexts both in and out of school (p.14).
The quote was in a newsletter from the Learning Development Center of Rochester University.  The article was aimed at helping the teachers better help their students by be good role models for how to study and learn.

For "Domain Literacy", however, there was no consensus on the meaning. The term domain seems to be used rather broadly.  Therefore, one can conclude a) a person competent in assimilating into a new cultural group (moving to the city from a rural area, or a new country),
b) being proficient in one of the domains of literacy: reading, writing, listening, speaking, viewing, and visually representing.
c) being proficient in literacy, math, or science.

So...Domain literacy seems to be concentrated on specific content, while Content literacy seems more far-reaching - encompassing print and technological information gathering and assimilation.

I think I just confused myself.....

I'm certainly open to comments.

update on group work

Yesterday I sat with the low group in one of the reading classes - this is the group I'm working with for class.  They had yet to finish reading both chapters assigned last week in their group book.  I went over the events in chapter 4 with them, then started reading chapter 5.  When I read aloud they were able to easily asnwer the comprehension questions and discuss character motivation.  The book is The House of Dies Drear by Virginia Hamilton, which is a Lexile of 670 - about mid to late 3rd grade. 

So, I'm finding they can understand what they hear, they just cannot read comfortably at the 3rd grade level.

We're doing 2-column note taking on all book levels using Theme and supporting details.  I'll continue to work along with this group part of the period.

proud of student

One of my students ( male with a reputation for disrupting) with a Lexile of 710 just finished "Monster" by Frank Peretti.  My copy is hardcover and 500 pages long...and definitely above 710.  He could only read a few pages a day, but he carried it with him all the time and other teachers would see him reading when he finished work.  I've heard him talking to other students about what he was reading, so I know he was understanding it. 

Just wanted to share!

practice groups

I took most of my lower Lexile students and gave the word list test earlier this year.  This particular student came up with around 3rd grade level before she hit frustration.  That was pretty much where he/she tested last year on the CRCT.  That group in third period is the one I've been looking at for the small group. 

There are three kids in that group: One is the one I tested, one is ESOL, the other one I'm not sure about.  Sometimes she seems able to function above her Lexile rating, other times not.

The student I tested with the word list is the one I gave the reading test to.  I used a second grade expository passage, had the child read aloud, and allowed  look backs.  The oral reading was okay, showing this was an independent passage.  BUT - based on the comprehension questions this is the child's instructional level.  The student can call the words fairly well, but the comprehension component shows there is a gap.  One telling comment the student made was, "You know how it is when you read - you just don't remember most if it."  Ouch!  That says she needs to read - pause-reflect adn see if that increases her recall of what she has read. All three of the group members will be learning that technique.

"Diagnosis" The Missing Ingredient in RTI Assessment"

I agree that if you have a student having difficulties, you need to try to figure out what's going on.  Is the student coming to school unprepared to learn?  Is the focus of the family away from education?  Does the student have a learning dissability?  Was there something they missed in  an earlier grade / lesson?

As I read the article, however, I noticed they were mainly speaking about early learning, not upper grades.  I think teachers in these grades are much more comfortable with the diagnostic process than middle and high school teachers, and have access to resources the upper teachers do not.  That being said, we teachers in the upper grades recognize many of our students have problems, we jsut don't know what to do about it.

Currently, the common practice seems to be to focus on those kids that can be fixed quickly so test scores will rise.  It seems the focus is on the test, not the students.  I've been told some students are too low to qualify for the "enrichment" classes.  In other words, they weren't a "bubble" kid so there wasn't enough time to bring them to "meets the standard". 

I guess my questions for the authors would be along the lines of :
1) I have a class of 27 students, 5 of which are around a third grade reading level, 7 are on a fifth grade level, and 6 are on sixth grade level.  The rest are around grade level.  No one is above grade level.  In 60 minutes, with 27 students and no assistance, how do you effectively test and diagnose problems?  Did I mention I have some of the top discipline problems int he school in there as well?  Oh, and 4 are SST kids. 
2) What assessments do I use?  After that, what materials? I have a basal reader and my own paperbacks.
3) I know some sorts of testing were done at the elementary level, but where do we see the results?
4) In a regular education middle school class, how do you remediate and teach the standards at the same time?

The average upper grade teacher needs validation that what they have been seeing is in fact true.  This article gives us that: you have to be able to DO something with all that data that's been collected.  Now, help us by giving us specifics.